A referendum campaign to stop enactment of an anti-discrimination law protecting gay and lesbian students fell short Thursday of the needed number of signatures.
The campaign, headed by the political arm of the conservative Capitol Resource Institute, announced it had gathered 350,000 signatures, well short of the needed 430,000 valid signatures.
But supporters of the referendum, which was undertaken without a large financial backer, vowed to fight on, noting they only had 70 days to collect signatures.
"It is unheard of for a volunteer-only effort to find this kind of support, especially in a state as large as California," Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Family Impact and director of the campaign, said in a statement.
England immediately filed a new initiative to overturn the law.
"This initiative will give us double the amount of time to gather signatures, while accomplishing the same goal of eliminating the extreme policies of SB 777," England said.
Referendums are the hardest measures to place before voters in California, with opponents of a new law having only 90 days to collect 433,971 valid signatures .
A regular ballot measure has a six-month window to collect signatures.
The law in question, SB 777, was authored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat. It prohibits discrimination in schools based upon sexual orientation.
England and her conservative allies have said the measure promotes a secret homosexual agenda.
Kuehl and other Democrats have dismissed that claim. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill in October.
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